Agency: Massachusetts puts out welcome mat for criminals
You might think that if someone wanted in another state for kidnapping applied to work in a school, nursing home or carnival in Massachusetts, that a state background check would mention the out-of-state charges.
You’d be wrong.
Calling the current criminal check system deficient, the state is studying how to get the authority and money to run nationwide background checks for at least those who apply for jobs working with vulnerable people, such as children and the elderly.
Currently, the state’s Criminal Offender Record Information system checks, or CORI checks, do not include crimes committed out-of-state. Massachusetts is one of just three states that do not let schools tap into the FBI fingerprint database to see if new teachers and staffers have a criminal past, wherever it may have been.
“The commonwealth is looking at this aggressively. We recognize it is a shortcoming,” said Curtis Wood, a former Quincy resident appointed Thursday as executive director of the state’s Criminal History Systems Board.
The flaw in CORI might lead to the state of Massachusetts adopting the use of the FBI database, but beware as that database is not 100% accurate either. The FBI database relies on each state to maintain their records in a manner that allows for easy transfer to the FBI, and this is simply not the case. The only true method of conducting a criminal background check is to contact the keeper of the record, the court!
